Events Archive for August 2012

Please join the Center for American Progress for a conference that will highlight and explore emerging economic evidence that a strong middle class is critical for robust economic growth. The conference will feature a live debate pitting “supply-oriented economics” against the emergent economic theory that posits the middle class as the key driver of growth. The conference will also include panel discussions delving into the latest evidence, and what lessons policy makers should learn from the new research.

The Affordable Care Act was the most far-reaching effort to contain health care costs to date. Still, health care costs remain a major challenge—and concern about their effect on the federal budget has only continued to grow.

The Center for American Progress convened leading health policy experts—including current and former federal and state officials, executives of health insurers and hospital systems, physicians, and economists—to develop bold and innovative solutions. These solutions are designed to reduce overall health care spending for both public and private payers. By contrast, several recent proposals would simply shift federal spending to individuals, employers, and states—which would ultimately lead many people to forego necessary care.

Please join us as we release alternative strategies that would protect Americans’ access to necessary care. Several of the experts will be on hand to present the solutions, lead a discussion of the issues, and answer your questions.

This event is made possible by a grant from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

Latinos are a growing and vibrant demographic in the United States and their successes and challenges are closely intertwined with the future economic wellbeing of our nation. In the last four years, this community has observed great achievements such as the appointment of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, an unprecedented number of appointed officials at high levels across our federal government, and growing political clout and influence. Yet they are also experiencing significant challenges—Latinos make up the highest number of those who are uninsured, have the highest dropout rates, and have lost their homes and thus their wealth at a disproportionate rate in the recent housing crisis.

From job creation strategies to health care reform and investments in education, the last four years have shown the current administration heavily investing in a number of initiatives to provide a pathway to the middle class and to ensure that the Latino community and all Americans can successfully overcome these obstacles. Please join us for a conversation with policy experts and high-level officials to discuss what the Obama administration is doing to ensure that the ladder of opportunity and middle-class security stays strong for the growing Latino community and the challenges that remain to be scaled.

Ninety-five percent of cases in America are heard in state courts, which are under siege by corporate interest money. Thirty-nine states elect their state supreme court justices, and over the last 20 years, corporate interests have flooded into the elections for these judges, raising grave doubts about the ability of Americans across the country to get a fair hearing in court.

Please join Legal Progress for an discussion between two state supreme court justices who have had a front row seat to the perverse effects that corporate interest money is having over the judiciary, and for a discussion about Citizens United's role over courtrooms today and for the future.

At this event Legal Progress will also release two new reports on corporate influence over the judicial system in America.

The ongoing housing crisis has cost millions of American families their homes, has erased trillions of dollars in household wealth, and remains one of the biggest drags on our economic recovery. Still, housing policy has barely been mentioned on the campaign trail in 2012.

Please join the Center for American Progress, the National Council of La Raza and other members of the “Home for Good” campaign for an event to elevate the housing debate and challenge presidential hopefuls on their strategies to address the housing crisis. The “Home for Good” campaign gives voice to homeowners and communities that continue to struggle with the effects of the crisis. We’ll hear from housing experts and civil rights advocates on the key questions the candidates must answer before November 6th, including how they plan to stop needless foreclosures, expand affordable rental housing, and revive a path to sustainable homeownership for all creditworthy Americans.

In his new book The New New Deal, Time magazine’s Senior National Correspondent Michael Grunwald uncovers new details on the successes and failures of the stimulus, one of the most significant and least understood pieces of legislation ever to emerge from Washington. With the country set to choose in November between two radically different visions of the future of the American economy, please join the Center for American Progress for a timely and important conversation on the real story on the law that some view as an unprecedented waste of taxpayer money but one that likely saved the economy from another depression and could change the policy landscape forever.

Copies of The New New Deal will be available for purchase at the event.

More often than not immigration enforcement is discussed in terms of numbers, such as the number of people deported or the government dollars spent each year. What often isn’t discussed are the families and communities who feel the impact of record-breaking deportations. In just the first half of last year, 46,000 parents of U.S. citizen children were deported in leaving behind single parents and their children in America. With over 11 million unauthorized immigrants living in the country, and over 16 million people living in mixed-status families (with at least one U.S. citizen, and one undocumented immigrant,) deportations affect a wide swath of the population. This event will examine how deportations and immigration enforcement affects children, families, and communities at large.

American children coming of age today will work in a global, technologically advanced economy, competing with peers in India, China, and other countries. Over the past several decades, China and India have been making historic educational investments in children, resulting in greater numbers of young people entering the workforce as highly qualified candidates for jobs in the key industries of innovation.

A new joint report by the Center for American Progress and The Center for the Next Generation, "The Race that Really Matters: Comparing U.S., Chinese, and Indian Investments in the Next Generation Workforce," details the progress China and India are making in preparing their labor force to play a bigger role in the high-skill and high-wage sectors of the economy, and it makes recommendations for the United States to respond with more vigorous policy decisions.

Results of a recently commissioned survey will also be released, reflecting the American public’s hunger for restoring U.S. leadership in education and increasing investments in education.

In It’s Even Worse Than It Looks, congressional scholars Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein identify two overriding problems that have led Congress—and the United States—to the brink of institutional collapse. The first is the serious mismatch between our political parties, which have become as vehemently adversarial as parliamentary parties, and a governing system that, unlike a parliamentary democracy, makes it extremely difficult for majorities to act. Second, while both parties participate in tribal warfare, both sides are not equally culpable. The political system faces what the authors call “asymmetric polarization,” with the Republican Party implacably refusing to allow anything that might help the Democrats politically, no matter the cost.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a discussion with the authors of It's Even Worse Thank It Looks

Copies of It's Even Worst Than It Looks will be available for purchase at the event